Ashes, Ashes
by OwlheadAthena
Summary: ... I can't. Fall. Down. Horror story, no pairings. Slight OOCness, but I just started getting back into Teen Titans, so cut me some slack.


**Some of you may already know I have a little sister. Little kids like to play games.**

'**Ring around the Rosie' is no exception. Anyway, I googled the lyrics… and the definition… and now I know my sister is singing about death.**

**Well… that can't be good for my horror-deprived brain.**

**Disclaimer: Pfft, yeah, I totally just bought Cartoon Network and Teen Titans and the world with my incredible wealth composed entirely of pennies. Totally did.**

…

* * *

><p>Starfire wasn't as… <em>educated <em>in Earth culture as her friends. Everyone knew it, but no one said it, as to not damage her feelings. It was simple: The alien only knew the basics of life on Earth, not the tiny little details that filled the cracks and in-betweens like small pieces of sand. She didn't know about the… _darker _parts. Neither did Beastboy.

Which was why, whenever a drug gang or murderer or rapist was on the loose, Starfire and Beastboy had to stay behind at the tower.

Because their teammates made them.  
>Because they couldn't handle it, apparently.<p>

_**...Ring around the Rosie...**_

…_**Pocket full of posies…**_

Robin only wanted what was right for his teammates, and that included preserving their innocence. Growing up in Gotham changed any person's personality, hardening them to the point of indifference for some people. That's why he knew he could handle it. Seeing death had really become a 'Been there, done that' sort of thing to the Boy Wonder.

Raven… well, the girl was a freaking half-demon. She was used to seeing the worst side of humanity, it's darkest points. That's why Robin knew she could handle it.  
>Cyborg… Cyborg was the oldest. He was the most out-going, the one who wanted to join the Justice League when he matured a bit. Death was part of the job of any 'real' superhero. He had to handle it, if he wanted to succeed.<p>

But Beastboy… the little green Titan was the youngest out of all of them. He'd seen the least amount of… _damage _out of all of them, even though he grew up as a superhero for most of his life. In the entire group, he was the most innocent; the most pure… and the team intended to keep it that way.

And Starfire… even though the Tameranian's home planet was a war-torn world, that didn't mean she would be prepared for when _humans_, killed each other. To Starfire, humans were good, pure, nice, kind… She didn't know they could be even more cold-blooded then the Gordanians.

The better they are… the worse they fall…

_**...Ashes, ashes...**_

…_**We all fall down...**_

So that being said, no one really was surprised the night Beastboy and Starfire decided to also find the serial killer rampaging through Jump City.

Everyone just really, really regretted what they had to see.

Because when the duo stumbled upon the latest body… a teenage girl younger than them with her throat cut right open and her body splayed across the asphalt… her dead eyes staring at nothing… her white blouse starting to turn pink and her ripped jeans… dark brown hair billowing around her head, standing stark in comparison to her blood-drained face… her parents standing nearby sobbing together as police slowly covered up the body… something broke.

Its name was 'innocence'.

Its name was 'purity'.

It was their heart, mind, _and body…_

Suddenly, childhood never seemed so far off.

_**...Ring around the Rosie...**_

_**...What do you suppose we...**_

Anger.  
>Passion for <em>justice.<em>

Righteous fury.

All leading up to one thing: Revenge.

Eating at them, clawing away at their mind, making them forget all that they stood for in their over-whelming passion for _justice _to be served… Over-riding their senses, making a metallic taste sound in their mouths, making their pupils dilate and contract at over-whelming speeds…

Beastboy and Starfire knew they were over-reacting, letting their emotions guide them, but the only thought on their mind _was to kill this man_, the one who'd ruined so many lives, who was the reason so many graves were buried with their occupants only fourteen years old and younger…

It wasn't fair. _Life isn't fair…_

So they handled it the way only anyone could: Took out their feelings on other.

The duo left dozens of unconscious criminals in their wake for their teammates to take care of as the two of them continued on their journey to find the murderer, and give him a taste of his own medicine.

_**...Can do to fight the darkness...**_

_**...In which we drown...?**_

Eventually, Beastboy and Starfire tracked down the killer and cornered him into an alley.

Turns out 'he' wasn't even a male, it was a small college-age girl who looked so small and weak that for a moment Starfire doubted this was the killer.

Then the little blonde haired girl took one of her hands out behind her back and showed the two Titans what was in it: A large, sharp, bloody butcher knife. With fresh blood, too.

Mad green eyes looked over a pair of turtle-rimmed glasses as the girl let a grin creep across her face.

In the red lighting of a nearby bar overhead, her teeth looked exactly the same shade as the turned-pink shirt of the murdered girl from earlier that evening.

Beastboy felt his own blood run cold for a moment, before he let out a roar and, morphing into a tiger, charged the girl who was responsible for the deaths of so many people.

_**...Ring around the Rosie...**_

…_**This evil thing, it knows me...**_

_Slash_ sounded a pair of claws as it tore a skirt with old blood crusted on the end.

_Whisk!_ Went a Star bolt, as it's lightning trail lighted up the dark alleyway like a Christmas tree.

_Shisk _went an upward curve-slash of a faintly gleaming knife.

Starfire felt a little sick as she realized the girl… whoever she was… must've polished her murder weapon between kills.

The thought made her strike even harder, and soon the girl's –who we shall call 'Lizzie' for the time-being- face was covered in spots that would tomorrow turn into dark bruises.

_**...Lost ghosts **__**surround me...**_

Keep hitting.

Keep striking.

The image of the murdered girl's surprised face before she was killed flashing through their minds as they pummeled the killer, the knife that had done the deed long discarded in the dark shadows of the alley.

Don't stop; hit harder; she left the side open, get a fist in-

"STARFIRE! BEASTBOY! _STOP!_"

Robin's voice comes so suddenly, as it echoes and warps slightly as it travels to where the trio stand at the end of the dark tunnel, that Beastboy and Starfire freeze, both with a paw/fist drawn back to strike once more.

It's then that they get a good luck at what they've caused to happen to 'Lizzie', who suddenly becomes a victim in their eyes. Blood; bruises; hell, maybe even a few broken ribs… It all leads up to one moment of sudden epiphany for Beastboy and Starfire, a realization that comes at such a force it causes Starfire to turn around and fall into Robin's arms, sobbing…

_They're no better than Lizzie._

_**...I can't. Fall. Down.**_

...

As the police loaded Lizzie into the waiting parole car in order to be taken to the hospital to be 'fixed up' –Starfire and Beastboy experienced a twinge of guilt- the Teen Titans stand off to the side, two of their members still shaking a little.

"Friends… Beastboy and I are so, so sorry-" Starfire starts, and then is immediately cut off by the rest of her teammates.

"Yo, it's okay Star. We all make mistakes-"  
>"Believe us, Starfire, you have nothing to be forgiven for-"<br>"It's okay, Star. The first murder I saw back in Gotham, I kinda did what you and BB did…"

And then they're all talking, laughing, and smiling together again like the small family they are, when a high-pitched, eerie voice suddenly cuts through the air.

"_Lizzie Borden took an axe, _

_And gave her mother forty whacks._

_When she saw what she had done…_

_She gave her father forty-one!"_

All eyes turn to the parole car where Lizzie is _supposed _to be inside of, but all that's there is an empty back-seat and a dead driver up front, his police cap falling off.

The man is pinned through his back to his seat via another knife, this time a long, thin, carving type one.

The only sound is the dead man's blood slowly dripping from his body onto the floor of his car, eyes open in the exact same shocked expression as the murdered girl from earlier.

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><p>…<p>

**See, this is what happens when it's Halloween for me.  
>This seems kinda dark in my opinion… maybe too dark… BUT HOLY CRAP THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE 8D<strong>

**And who was the murderer? Some of you may know… XP**

**Anyway, I did NOT make up either of those two songs. I found them online... well, for the 'Ring around the Rosies' one. I live in MA, which is where the 'Lizzie Borden' song originated, so I've known it for as long as I've had a jump rope.  
>REVIEW, PLEASE.<strong>

**~OHA**


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